Sea lion makes splash in public pool in Dunedin, New Zealand

A PUBLIC pool in New Zealand had to be cleared of human swimmers when a stray sea lion decided it wanted to go in for a dip. Watch the cute video here.

Charlie the Australian Sea-lion during a training session for the sea lion show at Taronga Zoo

A SEA lion had a paddle at a public swimming pool in New Zealand, then went lane swimming on Saturday morning.

The sea lion had been sunning itself outside the cafe at the pool in Dunedin and then sauntered into the saltwater paddling pool, the Otago Daily Times reports.

Lone swimmer ... a sea lion.

A clip posted on YouTube shows a man trying to herd the sea lion with two hockey sticks, but the animal makes a break for the main pool, to the cheers on onlookers.

The pool was quickly vacated by (human) swimmers, as the sea lion made use of all lanes.

“The sea lion walked through the front entrance of the pool, had a sunbath for a while, and then was asked to leave by a guy from the Department of Conservation. Except it wanted a swim first,” the person who posted the video said.

According to Wikipedia, the New Zealand sea lion (also known as Hooker’s sea lion) is “probably the world’s rarest”, with numbers around 10,000.